Twenty years ago, when John Keats went to visit the St. Lawrence, he had no idea he would return as the owner of an island he could seldom use and not afford to buy. Nevertheless, when his brother-in-law offered to sell him two acres of rock set in the middle of the Thousand Islands, he felt somehow right in accepting. Soon he left his job to write full-time, and the island became home to Keats and his family, where they discovered the quiet pleasures of living close to unspoiled nature: the beauty of the changing seasons, the joys of fishing, the savor of fresh food, and the comfort of the river people. Yet life on the island was not without hardship: isolated in the midst of the river, they had to contend with storms and loneliness. Curiously, in turning inward, and in sharing recreation and strife, the family developed an independence and self-assurance that left them free to turn outward and enter a far larger world. Looking back on those years, the famed social critic reflects on his life and work, both in the United States and on his island. In recounting the abundant tales and legends, the rites and rituals of this rural and unsophisticated community, Keats suggests a timelessness, a world in harmony with the rhythms of the universe. Against this backdrop, the vulgarity of the summer tourist and the depresations of an ever-encroaching polluted and mechanical society lie like a blight on a summer harvest. For those who know what it is to escape, if only momentarily, the chaos of cosmopolitan living for the tranquility of a country retreat, or who know what it is to have a home or to be a family, this is truly a book for all seasons.

ISBN: 0883270331